However, on March 23, 1972 the report and order of Review Board Number 3 of the Commission
*fn4"
reversed the hearing examiner's determination and recommended that the application be denied. The Review Board found the hearing examiner's statement of facts to be "substantially correct" and only modified them slightly.
*fn5"
It is this six-page report that National contests as error by the Commission.

On May 1, 1972 National petitioned the Commission for reconsideration of the Review Board's decision. National also requested to reopen the administrative record to admit the verified statement of its vice-president, Edmund T. De Felippis. On July 18, 1972 Division 1 of the Commission, acting in an appellate capacity, denied National's requests and affirmed the decision of the Review Board. In its one-page order the Commission specifically noted that the De Felippis statement, even if received, would not "warrant a result different than that already reached by the Board".
*fn6"
National petitioned the Commission for further review which was denied on August 29, 1972.

National's application was made pursuant to Section 207(a) of the Interstate Commerce Act, 49 U.S.C. Sec. 307(a), which provides in pertinent part:

"Subject to section 310 of this title, a certificate shall be issued to any qualified applicant therefor, authorizing the whole or any part of the operations covered by the application, if it is found that the applicant is fit, willing, and able properly to perform the service proposed and to conform to the provisions of this chapter and the requirements, rules, and regulations of the Commission thereunder, and that the proposed service, to the extent to be authorized by the certificate, is or will be required by the present or future public convenience and necessity; otherwise such application shall be denied. . . ."

In this case, the record discloses two essential bases given by the Commission for reversing the hearing examiner's conclusions. First, the Review Board finds that the existing services of Curtis, Inc.,
*fn7"
an irregular motor common carrier with headquarters at Denver, Colorado, are adequate to service the needs of these two shippers because Curtis is in a "better position" to provide such service.
*fn8"
Second, the Review Board finds that National has not demonstrated any "reasonable" or "feasible" plan
*fn9"
to meet the east-bound transportation needs of these shippers, primarily because National has failed to show that it terminates enough west-bound equipment close to either Denver, Colorado or Lincoln, Nebraska so that equipment would readily be available to take the meat to the east coast of the nation.

It is important to note that these shippers require a particular type of transportation service known in the trade as "peddle service".
*fn10"
Peddle service is a method used to reduce warehouse handling and transferring of meat into different vehicles which results in loss of freshness and quality. For example, a National trailer would be loaded with the first store-door delivery stop loaded on last. An over-the-road driver would bring it to the nearest National terminal on the eastern seaboard where a different tractor and local driver would take over the trailer and continue on to make door stops at each Food Fair store near that terminal. Utilizing this peddle service technique, the meat is loaded and unloaded only once to preserve its quality. With respect to peddle service, the record reveals that Food Fair believes National Freight to be "very effective" because it has provided such service in the eastern area for perishables and dry freight of Food Fair for four or five years and because Food Fair considers National to be "food-industry oriented" and "very cognizant" of their requirements for fast and dependable service.
*fn11"
Acme expressed a similar confidence in National's peddle service based upon National's previous service to it for other perishable commodities.
*fn12"
On the other hand, Curtis has provided peddle service for Food Fair and other shippers to the west coast, mostly to California.
*fn13"
Curtis had an east coast terminal in New Jersey in 1971 and has made very few shipments to stores in the east.
*fn14"

But the two shippers in this case clearly require an eastern-based carrier to provide such specialized peddle service primarily because of the advantage of a carrier with a number of eastern facilities, equipment and local drivers familiar with east coast store locations.
*fn15"
The hearing examiner utilized this evidence to reach the fairly obvious conclusion that National rather than Curtis could better serve the eastern peddle deliveries of these shippers.
*fn16"
The Review Board Report merely asserts that Curtis is "in a better position" to meet the "east-bound transportation needs" without revealing any substantial facts or specific findings in favor of such a conclusion,
*fn17"
even in view of the particularized need for eastern peddle service.
*fn18"

We need not reach the argument of National that the Commission's use of a "better position" test is an erroneous legal standard under the statutory requirement of public convenience and necessity because it is a generally accepted principle that the criteria by which the Commission chooses to make determinations of public convenience and necessity may not be reviewed or criticized by this Court unless they are found to be capricious or irrational. Midwest Emery Freight System, Inc. v. United States, 293 F. Supp. 403, 405 (D. Ill. 1968); Greyhound Lines, Inc. v. United States, 285 F. Supp. 318, 321 (D. Ill. 1968); United Van Lines, Inc. v. United States, 266 F. Supp. 586, 589 (D. Mo. 1967). More importantly, the record as a whole shows substantial evidence that, as the hearing examiner determined, National rather than Curtis is better equipped to provide peddle service in the eastern seaboard states, especially in view of National's past history of effective peddle delivery of other perishable commodities in these eastern areas and the east coast orientation of its drivers. The Commission's findings and conclusions that Curtis can better provide peddle delivery along the east coast are not supported by substantial evidence on the record viewed as a whole. Thus, the first basis of the Commission's denial is without substantial factual foundation in the administrative record.

The second basis for the Commission's denial of National's application, that National has no feasible plan of operations because it does not terminate enough trucks close to Denver or Lincoln, presents a more difficult issue to resolve. The Review Board found that National's west-bound authority for perishables "generally terminates between 400 and 800 miles east of the two sought origins".
*fn19"
While National's closest terminal to these origins appears to be Waxahachie, Texas,
*fn20"
the record reveals that National does have authority to truck perishable commodities into several mid-western states.
*fn21"
In fact, the record clearly indicates that National has this authority into Nebraska, where Lincoln is located and which borders Colorado.
*fn22"
National is also authorized to serve the entire State of Kansas which is adjacent to both Nebraska and Colorado. Both Iowa and Missouri, which border Nebraska, can be served by National. Thus, the Commission's factual finding that National's west-bound authority for perishables generally terminates between 400 and 800 miles east of Lincoln and Denver is erroneous and not supported by substantial evidence. Even though National did not show the specific number of trucks terminating in these states, the Commission's finding with respect to the west-bound authority of National remains unsupported.

National argues that the Commission's conclusion of unfeasibility is erroneous because the record shows that even if vehicles terminate more than 400 miles from Lincoln or Denver, they can be efficiently dispatched to pick-up the shippers' east-bound loads of meat by use of National's telephonic central dispatch system. The Report of the Review Board does not discuss this dispatch system's effectiveness even though the record shows National's well-placed reliance on that system for nearly all its Midwest operations.
*fn23"
National also contends that it will "deadhead"
*fn24"
vehicles to these origin points when necessary and that because such "deadheading" has been permitted in other cases in the past by the Commission over great distances,
*fn25"
the use of the "deadhead" technique alone cannot render a proposed plan of operations unfeasible. Indeed, Curtis' own vice-president admitted that it is not possible to "have a terminal at every shipping point",
*fn26"
which implies that necessarily every motor carrier must, to some extent, send empty vehicles from one point to another to pick up cargo.

The difficulty with the Commission's denial of National's application on the ground that National does not "generally terminate" the requested seventy-five refrigerated vehicles per week in the Lincoln or Denver vicinities is that in reaching this conclusion the Commission makes no findings nor attempts any reasoning with respect to National's proposals in the record to utilize its telephonic dispatch system and to "deadhead" vehicles. The Commission merely concludes that because National did not, at the time of its application, terminate seventy-five trucks in those areas, there was no "feasible" means for National to get vehicles to Lincoln or Denver in spite of substantial evidence offered by National to the contrary. In view of National's proposals on the record, it is difficult to determine how the Commission reached its conclusion of denial without any findings with respect to these proposals. Apparently the hearing examiner relied upon the evidence of these proposed methods when he determined that National "has refrigerated equipment terminating in the mid-west which could be utilized for the transportation of the involved traffic".
*fn27"
It is most difficult for this Court to discern the basis for the Commission's reversal on this point without specific findings and rational conclusions based upon substantial evidence in the record. In our opinion, it was error for the Commission to reach such a conclusion without specific findings or rational reasons based upon substantial evidence in the record.

Based upon our examination of the entire record, it is the opinion of this Court that the Commission's findings that Curtis is in a "better position" and that National Freight has no "feasible" plan because it does not generally terminate enough trucks in the origin areas are erroneous because they are not supported by adequate subsidiary findings nor by substantial evidence on the record as a whole.

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